Six hundred laser beams, 10 million pixels of video, 20-metre-wide holograms – and one DJ. Eric Prydz is known for putting on a good show, and his latest topped even his previous efforts in both scale and impact.

EPIC 5.0, the most recent in the Swedish DJ’s “Eric Prydz in Concert” series, took place in London’s Victoria Park, drawing a crowd of 15,000 to soak up an audiovisual feast of electronic music, video and lighting effects. Holograms and lasers are a trademark of Prydz’s shows and EPIC 5.0 did not disappoint, pushing innovative effects using the latest tech. There were animations building and twisting around the stage in time to the beat, holograms of astronauts, satellites and tornadoes, and lasers radiating over the crowd in every colour and configuration.

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The day before the show, WIRED met the technical team on-site to get an exclusive look at the build and find out more about how they put together such a massive production.

Production manager Mark Calvert and technical director Dave Green, who run tech company Realtime Environment Systems (RES), have been working with Prydz for nine years. “We call ourselves systems integrators,” says Calvert. “We come to jobs and are tasked with making all the systems work together.”

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Having overseen Prydz’s previous EPIC productions, Calvert says the key to making something that still seems fresh is to always use the newest technology. “To do a cutting-edge show, you need to know whatever tech is right at the forefront of whatever’s happening, because if you don’t, other people have probably done something cool with it already,” he says.

The Steel Yard was set up in Victoria Park for a crowd of 15,000 people

Antonio Pagano

Most of the tech is centred around the stage at the front of the Steel Yard, a 110-metre long metal-and-tarpaulin “megastructure” erected for the show. The structure takes nine days to build before the technical production – the lighting rigs, trussing, motor system, screens – are loaded in over five days. This time frame, says Calvert, makes the show “pretty much untourable”.

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A huge V-shaped video display forms the back wall of the stage, measuring 2304 by 576 LED pixels – more than a million in total. In front of this, a second V-shaped display forms a cube with the back wall. This display is called the Vanish; later, Prydz will take to his decks inside this box, but because the pixels on the front display are set further apart from each other, you can still see him through it when he’s lit up. It means he can be enveloped by animations while remaining visible.

Animations played across the cube, with Prydz inside

Antonio Pagano

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There is one more screen in front of Prydz’s cube: a thin mesh-like material, stretched all the way across the front of the stage. “At night, it becomes nearly invisible, so when you project on it, the light that hits the screen is the only thing you see,” says Calvert.

This creates what people call a hologram – although it's technically a “holographic illusion”. The illusions are cast onto the screen by four laser projectors, the outputs of which are merged to create a single image. Each projector kicks out 30,000 lumens of laser light, and as they use a laser engine instead of a bulb, explains Calvert, the brightness stays consistent for longer.

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It’s this combination of displays that leads to some truly awesome visuals, with Prydz encased in a box of glimmering stars while a giant holographic astronaut floats around in mid-air in front of him.

Creative director and VJ Liam Tomaszewski is responsible for the content of the animations, both on the walls of the cube and the hologram screen. He’s been working with Prydz since the first EPIC show in 2011 and says he has been making animations for EPIC 5.0 over the last 18 months.

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Prydz's 'Pryda' logo in hologram form

Antonio Pagano

As a fan of Prydz’s music, Tomaszewski comes up with ideas for his animations quite organically. “I kind of see certain things when I listen to the music and I try to get whatever’s in there” – he points at his head – “on there” – he says, pointing to his computer monitor. His only rule is to avoid things he’s seen in a show context before – “so you won’t see any pumping speaker cones on this show”.

Effects Tomaszewski has created for the cube display vary from a simple white line that traces the outline of the cube to massive glitch effects that make it look like the structure is morphing into new shapes in front of your eyes. His holographic animations include a rotating satellite that shows the Earth reflecting in its solar array, a swirling fluffy cloud and a giant mouse logo associated with one of Prydz’s alternative stage name, Cirez D.

When Tomaszewski first started, the team used a form of holographic trickery called Pepper’s Ghost illusion, which involves carefully lighting things through a thin film. Since moving to the projection system he’s learned what works best in a hologram: using slow movement so your eyes can really focus on the image, avoiding using too much black and making sure to keep the animation inside the frame. At 4K resolution and with a frame rate of 50 fps, some of the holograms took a week to render.

A hologram of a satellite floats above the crowd

Antonio Pagano

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Having the three different video planes means Tomaszewski can play around with depth, though it also presents certain technical challenges. Everything has to be carefully balanced to work together – lighting the back wall too brightly, for example, would shatter the holographic illusion.

For this reason, the video content also has to be synchronised with the lights and lasers. Everything has been tested in simulation before the show, and is tweaked on-site. During the performance, Tomaszewski stands at his console alongside lighting designer Ross Chapple and laser designer Mark Nath at the front of house. Unusually, this is actually located at the far back of the Steel Yard; it’s more common to have the front of house part-way through the crowd along with the sound engineer. The idea, explains Calvert, is to create an uninterrupted dance floor.

An uninterrupted dance floor

Eric Prydz

Perhaps the most remarkable thing about the show is that it's all performed live. While the animations have been built and different lighting effects programmed, the team doesn’t know what order they’ll use them in – because they don’t know which songs Prydz will play. Many shows of this scale would be locked to timecode, but Prydz insists on having the freedom to play live. “We’ve got a very good idea about what media, lighting and laser looks are going to be used,” says Green. “What we don’t have a very good idea of is what songs Eric’s going to play.”

On the lighting front, Chapple has 320 lights of various different fixtures and effects to play with, from sharpies, which offer a tight beam of colour, to big floodlights and strobe lights at each side of the stage. There’s also a grid of lights suspended over the central cube, which is held up by four chains and can be tilted or lowered over Prydz’s head using a system of motors. “That’s a trick we’re keeping up our sleeve until later on in the show,” he says.

Laser effects were a crowd favourite

Antonio Pagano

On the night, each design aspect has its moment. Holograms or animations on the cube take centre stage at some points, while others are all about the lighting. Part way through the set, the crowd goes crazy for one feature that’s held back for dramatic effect: lasers. As well as nearly 300 single diode lasers which can be pointed around the space, there are rows of linear laser arrays along the sides of the structure, each of which contains around ten lasers in a row. These emit beams over the heads of the audience to form a glowing red grid. The most eye-catching effect occurs when dozens of green lasers flash over the crowd like huge fluorescent palm fronds.

Throughout the show, the team coordinates primarily with looks and nods, flipping switches and tweaking faders on their consoles like they’re playing their own musical instruments in a band. “It isn’t much work to stay in sync, it’s kind of like a football team,” says Tomaszewski.

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A hologram of Eric Prydz's face closed his EPIC 5.0 show in London

Antonio Pagano

The night goes off without a hitch – at least as far as can be seen from the dance floor – with many shouting for more after the two-hour set. As the last beats of crowd favourite Opus fill the space, a giant blue hologram of Prydz's head appears to disintegrate into powder – then melts away as the lights come up.